The microphone explodes

I say this as an American. Good. Never capitulate to bullies, it just encourages them

Ron Howard: “It is.”

Yeah I felt the same way. The country is falling apart and we are just supposed to continue celebrating big businesses, rich athletes, and music stars? I couldn’t really get into it.

The truth is that the party as a whole is far more interested in converting the moderate Republican than the progressive voter. If they show a willingness to work across the aisle then in their minds they are more appealing to these voters. In reality, they are eroding what’s left of their base, looking weak af

Somehow I’ve never heard this one until today, and I loved it. It really is a beautiful song, and I’m not even religious

I feel like this has promise.

I love that it leans into comic-book-iness instead of trying to make Superman grimdark. The colors are bright. It unapologetically includes Krypto. There’s a kaiju. This is what comics do. It also pays homage to the original movies with the John Williams score, but with a twist on the electric guitar so it’s also unique.

I also actually like that it’s not going to be an origin story and that other heroes already exist and are acknowledged. I don’t think the other heroes are going to play a major role, but the fact that they’re there at all is another sort of thing that the comics do. New readers just have to accept that these characters exist and don’t require a lengthy intro. I think movie audiences will be able to do the same.

Most importantly it shows that Gunn seems to understand the character. Supes isn’t dark and brooding. He’s bright and cheesy but a source of hope. Clark looks like a dork, as he should. He has chemistry with Lois.

Yes the effects are a bit rough. It’s a teaser. They will probably improve by release.

But if James Gunn can make the Guardians of the Galaxy, a team that only the most hardcore comic book fans even knew about, into a household name, I’m excited to see what he can do with Superman and the DC Universe.

The International Court of Justice does not just represent the West, it represents all UN countries. And while it did find evidence of human rights abuse it did not find evidence of genocide, because that is a high bar.

Furthermore, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, representing 300 genocide experts, condemned Russia’s use of the term to justify its own violence, as cited here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14623528.2022.2099633?scroll=top&needAccess=true

You’re free to form a different opinion. But when yours is different than the majority of the world’s and the International Court, but won’t even admit that yours might be the hot take, it’s not a good look

Buddy, what he said was reprehensible and I am not trying to defend his actions or statements. But does it meet the standard of “ethnic cleansing?” The International Court and most of the world says no.

The Wikipedia article is a summary of many cited sources. There’s academic ones like The Journal of Genocidal Research. There’s a UN report from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. There’s news reports from Reuters and the BBC. There’s a report from the International Court. Though I’m sure you checked the sources before dismissing the article out of hand.

No one is saying that there was zero conflict in Donbas leading up to the invasion. But to label it as “ethnic cleansing” without even acknowledging that this claim is widely disputed internationally is at best irresponsible and at worst deceptive

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_genocide_in_Donbas?wprov=sfla1

Oh there’s ethnic cleansing happening all right…

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/03/russia-ukraine-a-decade-of-suppressing-non-russian-identities-in-occupied-crimea/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_genocide_in_Donbas?wprov=sfla1

Fantastic movie. Now excuse me while I get back to my copy of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

So like, 1% of his annual salary?

DOGE. You’ve gotta be kidding me

Audiences have always been interested in good storytelling. The reason the MCU took off was because it told good stories. The problem is that the stories have become too formulaic or half-baked.

People showed up for Deadpool and Wolverine, so the issue isn’t about comic book movies.

EDIT: My comment about D&W isn’t meant to hold it up as an example of good storytelling. As I said, the stories have become formulaic. My mentioning of it is meant to point out that many comic book movies succeed despite mediocre storytelling. You can’t say “audiences are tired of comic book movies” when many are still clearly successful.

I’m not sure what difference it makes here that it was a volunteer position. There was a background check (two, actually) just like there would have been if it was a paid position. Schools often use volunteers too to read to kids or tutor after school, etc.

I’m not saying churches are always this responsible. I’m saying we should applaud the ones that take steps to prevent this and work with law enforcement when those steps fail

Not to defend churches in general, but the article headline here is pretty misleading in calling this guy a youth leader. He was a volunteer. And, to the church’s credit, when this came out they immediately began cooperating with law enforcement and even referred anyone with more info to talk to the police.

I don’t like churches in general, but this one did as well as any other organization that has volunteers working with kids. They had background checks in place and did not try to cover anything up.

Excellent movie!

The nonlinear style was actually done really well

Loved the use of color in certain scenes, really made them pop (fun fact, the actor Giovanni Ribisi was Director of Photography. Apparently he had a small role in the movie too but I don’t recall it)

Willa Fitzgerald showed off huge acting range as The Lady. You know which scenes I’m talking about. Holy shit

Kyle Gallner didn’t show off as much range but was totally convincing as The Demon

I hadn’t seen either of them in anything before but I hope they get bigger projects after this. I think not having huge, well-known stars helped immerse me into the story though. In fact it was kind of jarring when Ed Begley Jr showed up because I actually recognized him in a movie full of people I had never seen before